Ghosthunting in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

"We were at the Waverly Hills Tuberculosis Center… Keith reached out to open a heavy steel door… Suddenly, the door opened and slammed by itself… When we opened the door, there was only one small, wet footprint.

"That experience was not enough to convince me that there are ghosts, but it was enough to make me wonder," said Alan Brown, author of Ghost Hunters of the South, as well as several collections of local ghost stories he has collected over the years. "You have to be skeptical. When you see the evidence, it's very tempting to make the leap: to say there is a ghost here. But many of these [anomalies] have physical causes as mundane as dust particles. The groups which I put the most credence in are the groups with the lowest success rate: 5% or so."

Among the groups Brown included in Ghost Hunters of the South was South Louisiana Ghost Hunters, based in Prairieville, and directed by Pam Gates. In her interview with Brown, Gates explained how her psychic abilities have been an asset in her paranormal investigations. "I sense presences. Sometimes I can see them. There are times when they have conversations with me."

One such conversation tested both Gates' psychic and linguistic capabilities. While investigating the Georgia Plantation in Labadieville, Louisiana, Gates sensed the presence of a small child in the upstairs of the overseer's house. "I couldn't get any communication. The second time I went I realized the child didn't speak no English. So my co-director and I began speaking to her in Cajun French. Then she responded to me."

The response Gates received was not entirely positive, and at times the spirit acted hostilely, frightening both Gates and her crew. During a subsequent visit to the plantation, Gates was showing her crew some hidden rooms in the attic when "someone grabbed me from behind and started dragging me into the room." As Gates described in her interview with Brown, it took three members of her crew to rescue her from the ghost's grasp. "The harder they pulled one way, the harder [the entity] pulled the other way. Twice I felt hands on the back of my head. Then [the ghost] pushed my head into the windowsill. It also pushed my head into a beam," said Gates.

Brown, who dabbles in ghost hunting himself, also traveled with a psychic, a group of paranormal investigators, and a crew from MISS 101.3 (formally WOKK) to Kings Cavern and the Magnolia House in Natchez. "A psychic contacted me and said the [spirit of] the architect who built the place had told her that his daughter was going to play the piano. We waited around a while. Then all of us heard two distinctive key strokes of the piano," said Brown.

Proving one paranormal phenomenon by using another, however, is a leap neither Brown nor many other investigators are willing to take. "Over half the groups I interviewed did not use psychics. They realize the more scientific the method, the more likely they are to be believed. Those that do include psychics generally use them to pinpoint the location of the ghost, and then set up more objective testing equipment."

The most well funded paranormal investigators - such as T.A.P.S. (The Atlantic Paranormal Society), who can be seen in the Sci-Fi Channel's series Ghosthunters - use electromagnetic field meters (EMF's); night vision scopes; motion detectors; Geiger counters; ion particle counters, which measure density anomalies; and oscilloscopes, which measure voltage and time. Brown explained why these paranormal investigators expend so much time, money, and energy searching for proof that ghosts exist: "They search for hard evidence in order to gain acceptance and recognition from the mainstream scientific community, as well as to answer the age old question: is there anything after this."

In Ghost Hunters of the South, Brown wrote: Ghost hunting is more than just a hobby. For the best researchers, investigating the paranormal is a passion, a calling these dedicated men and women spend hours and thousands of dollars walking though old buildings and cemeteries, not because they want to, but because they have to."

If you feel the call, Brown also has some tips as to how to get started. "If you are looking to have a ghost experience, start with the Haunted Places National Directory, which lists primary haunted location across the country listed by state and town." To cast a wider net Brown also recommends the Shadowlands website, which has more listings, but accepts submissions over the internet from anyone who claims to have had a paranormal experience. "Another good place to start," said Brown, "is the vertical file at your local public library, which often holds records of reported haunted locations within the community."
The next step is to assemble your ghost hunting kit. While the more elaborate set-up may yield more definitive results, for your entry into the ghost hunting world all you need is a camera to record orbs, glowing balls of light which some claim are spirits; a tape recorder to capture EVPs, electronic voice phenomena (sounds undetectable to the human ear until captured on an electromagnetically sensitive device); a digital thermometer to check for paranormal cold spots; a compass to check for magnetic disturbances; and a notepad and pen to record your observations.

If you are unable to assemble a ghost hunting kit, or if you are afraid to go it alone, Brown suggests visiting a ghost hunting convention in order to meet other paranormal enthusiasts in your area. While most of the attendees are there to show and view evidence, Brown warns that these events "will attract some flaky people."

"While researching this book, I went to the American Conference of Ghost Societies. One guy came dressed a character from the movie Ghostbusters." Flakes notwithstanding, Brown still endorses theses meetings as an excellent way to learn from others in the field and meet many of the writers who have published serious books on the subject.

Once you are prepared to go on your first ghost hunt all that remains is "a very tedious boring process." As it is not the wont of the paranormal to perform for mere mortals, most of ghost hunting is waiting for something to happen: you leave your tapes running. "It helps to have a voice or motion activated tape recorder," says Brown, as you have to listen to the tapes in real time when you are done. You take a lot of pictures, take a lot of readings on your other measuring devices, and take a lot of notes, until you find what just might be the answer to the ultimate question: is there something else out there?

Origionally published in Country Roads Magazine, October 2006.

For Further Investigation:
www.upress.state.ms.us: Brown, Alan. Ghost Hunters of the South.
theshadowlands.net : The Shadowlands
www.southlouisianaghosthunters.com : South Louisiana Ghost Hunters
scifi.com/ghosthunter: T.A.P.S. (The Atlantic Paranormal Society).